Spiffy:

Iffy:

Dark Sector has nearly reached the light, with publisher D3 showing off the game's multiplayer modes at this year's GDC. We got to play both of Dark Sector's multiplayer modes, Infection and Epidemic, at D3's event. They're definitely fun additions to the game, letting players play both stalker and target, though we don't see ourselves being torn from CoD4 anytime soon.

On a Dark Factory Floor

Infection casts all but one of the players as Hazmat troopers, with the odd person out playing as a maxed-out Hayden Tenno (he's the main character). The Tenno player gets the full run of cool techno-virus powers, including a maxed-out glaive, the ability to cloak for brief periods, and an energy pulse. The Hazmat troopers can't turn invisible, but in return they get really neat Hazmat outfits and an array of weapons that include shotguns, rifles and mines.

In addition to spawning with either a close-in shotgun or a mid-range rifle, the Hazmat troopers carry a single proximity mine and a friend-or-foe identifier. About twice a minute they can press a button (the same one that Tenno uses for shielding and shifting into invisibility) to ping their field of vision. When they do, allies get marked with a temporary green sigil above their heads. Tenno gets marked with a red sigil if he's in your field of vision. Other Hazmat squad members will see this icon, once Tenno is "tagged," but only if they "ping" with their friend-or-foe system.

The idea behind this system is that the constantly spawning Hazmat troopers can "herd" Tenno until someone can drop him, earning the right to play as Tenno in the next round. Although we'll admit both we and our fellow players were new to Dark Sector's multiplayer, this formula seems like it needs some tightening. Since Tenno spawns in the same spot every round, a rush towards that location usually pinned him down quickly. That created an easy opportunity for an opportunistic player to rush behind him and execute the one-hit melee kill from there.